7 Movies to Watch for Artists Sunday This Weekend

The Madlab Post has joined artists and organizations from coast to coast for Artists Sunday, the world’s largest art event dedicated to encouraging the public to buy something special, unique and handcrafted this holiday season – from paintings, sculptures, and pottery to multimedia works, textiles, music, photography and more. 

Artists Sunday is bringing 500 communities around the country together for the fourth time in a movement to recognize the importance of art in our lives and its impact on the local economy.

“It’s a day to fill our lives with beauty, creativity, and joy,” says Christopher V. Sherman, an aerial photographer, videographer and entrepreneur who loves experimenting with cameras and digital software tools. 

What We're Doing This Holiday Season 

There's a lot going on...to start, on Sundays I will be introducing you to several indie film directors, writers and producers who you can support by renting, streaming or buying their films and other merchandise. You can also support many of them by attending the festivals where their films are screening. 

Documentaries to Watch this Weekend...

See extra footage from the documentary Reinventing Freedom directed by Robert J Moore and Eleftherios Koutinas when you rent it to stream from a computer, TV, or mobile device! Reinventing Freedom tells the incredible journey of resilience, redemption, and triumph from homelessness and years behind bars to global recognition. 

Interdisciplinary Artist Anitra Nelson directed, wrote, produced, narrated, and did photography seen in her documentary film Beyond Money: Yenomon -- lively thought experiment of a postcapitalist world without money — a world satisfying everyone’s basic needs, living within Earth’s limits and offering power to people. The documentary is based on a chapter of Nelson’s book Beyond Money: A Postcapitalist Strategy, drawing on activists engaged in a fight for a money-free society.

In her book, Nelson aims to deepen our understanding of how money is the driver of political power, environmental destruction and social inequality today, arguing that it has to be abolished rather than repurposed to achieve a postcapitalist future. Beyond Money: A Postcapitalist Strategy is available as a Paperback and Ebook. 

Historical & Romantic Drama Movies to Watch this Weekend...

Listen to the Soundtrack of the The Astronot by Pennan BraeA reclusive wishful astronaut strives to overcome his fear of loss during the space race of the 1960s in The Astronot by screenwriter, actor, co-producer & music composer Pennan Brae and Co-Producer/Director Tim Cash. This historical drama film is available to stream on Amazon Prime in the U.S. and UK. 

A singer-songwriter named Sarah Jane moves to London to make it in the music industry, where an industry executive named Russel D leads her down a path that is difficult for her to return from in Purple Beatz written and directed by Lola Atkins. Set in the underground drum and bass scene of 90's London, this coming-of-age romantic drama is available to stream on Tubi, Amazon Prime Video, iTunes, Apple TV, Google Movies and YouTube. 

Comedy Movies to Watch this Weekend...

When a gym bag goes missing, the lives of a ride share driver and a slap fighter intertwine in the comedy Slapped Straight by David Anderson & Raynel Almonte of Luminary Figures Group. You can directly support the artists who created this project by renting the film for 48 hours, or buying it for unlimited streaming. You can also get your very own Slapped Straight gym bag and SFC (Smack Fighting Championship) T-Shirt to match your movie night viewing of this story about a man who gave up on life until he gets slapped into a new perspective by a fighter named Hothands who gives him the courage to face his fears.  

Science Fiction Movies to Watch this Weekend

The Art-house Sci-Fi Drama Foreclosure by Maki recently made its VOD debut and is now available for rent on Gumroad, where you can watch this movie about alien colonization, the desire to live forever and a global Armageddon. Foreclosure re-imagines footage from a 1960s post-apocalyptic Italian horror film based on Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel, I Am Legend. 

Horror Movies to Watch this Weekend...

NOW AVAILABLE on Amazon: Stream the horror film Many Keys - The Heartbreak Monologue by Mike Messier, for Artists SundayHeartbreak welcomes her new friends to "this odd reality" in the horror film, Many Keys - The Heartbreak Monologue by producer, writer and director Mike Messier.

The film features a monologue extracted from Messier ‘s novel/feature film screenplay, A Distance from Avalon - When the Dying and the Dead Reunite.

 Many Keys - The Heartbreak Monologue is available on Amazon. 

The Madlab Post will be highlighting and promoting the giving of art-focused items and experiences for the holidays.

“Every artist that you invest in, whether it's buying something to hang on your wall, or something for your kitchen, or something that you wear, or jewelry, that's going back into the local economy,” says Sherman. 

Another way you can support Artists Sunday is by making a holiday wish-list and encouraging your loved ones to gift you items from local artists and makers. Then send your list to your friends and family. Be sure to include your favorite movies from the list above and upcoming spotlights here on The Madlab Post! 

What fills your life with beauty, creativity, and joy?

Which of these films would you like to watch first?

Monday Movie Meme - Lost in Translation

Have you’ve ever watched a foreign film with subtitles so puzzling that you feel like you’d be better off seeing this movie in its native language? If so, the theme of this week’s Monday Movie Meme is for you and those of us who have had to find our own way -- through the actions and moving lips in films from other lands: Lost in Translation.

Share on your blog or in the comments section, movies you’ve watched that contain frustrating subtitles. They might even be so bad that you felt a headache coming on, just trying to follow long in the story playing out on screen. Some subtitles are incomplete or do not make any sense. Others are displayed in an ineligible font or color that causes strain on the eyes. Whatever the case, you wished more attention to detail was put toward this seemingly minor, yet oh-so-important, aspect of a movie.

Here are my selections for this week’s Lost in Translation theme.

The Girl who played with Fire

I developed a headache while trying to watch this movie due to the faulty subtitles. Solution – turn on the English dub track! That was easy enough, except for the fact that I could not seem to turn the subtitles off, so I had two choices – watch “The Girl who played with Fire” with subtitles only, even though they disappear mid-sentence while the characters are visibly still talking on screen. Or, I can activate this movie’s English dub track and then sit back and watch while the English that I’m hearing on screen doesn’t match up to the subtitles. What the heck?! Did they outsource both versions to two completely different companies, or what?

What I found most interesting, however, is that after I returned this confusing piece of junk back to the library where I borrowed it from, the DVD rental that I picked up from Blockbuster was just fine – so fine that I didn’t even need to watch it with an English dub. I was able to watch it with fully completed subtitles. The lesson in this viewing experience: Be weary of getting foreign films from libraries.

Bliss (Mutluluk)

Yeah, this movie has been on my radar a lot lately and is the (loosely) inspiration for this week’s meme. The subtitles are thin, yellow and too damn small. I had to get up and stand in front of the television several times throughout this movie, just so I could read what the characters were saying.

Good thing that “Bliss” was otherwise a well-made film and had a tight story going for it. Although this is one of few foreign films that I would watch again, it is highly unlikely that I will do so, given the fact that its subtitling size needs to be bumped up a notch or two – or three!

Oldboy

After learning about this popular South Korean mystery drama, I rented the DVD, only to learn that its subtitles do not match up to the action and verbal communication being displayed on screen.

So, I refused to continue to watch “Oldboy” at that time and today it remains among the films I hit the “stop” button on, turning off after only just a few scenes in. Considering what happened with “The Girl who played with Fire” where I had to obtain the same movie twice from different services, I’m now wondering of this “Oldboy” subtitle mix-up was a case of a shoddy DVD source. As the November 27^th release of the “Oldboy” remake approaches, I also wonder if I should even bother watching the Korean one; why bother playing subtitle roulette when I can watch an all-English version without all this native/foreign translation drama?!

What foreign films have YOU watched that contained faulty subtitles, making it difficult for you to interpret, or enjoy, the movie?

How Xscape Expanded My Netflix Queue to Include a Sports Drama with one Tell-It-All Synopsis #atozchallenge

“As I stand here contemplating on the right thing to decide, will I take the wrong direction, all my life, where will I go? What lies ahead of me? -- And my mind is so confusing. Who would be that special one? Everyday I’m trying to find you all around, I’ve got to know, is there a place for me?”

“Who Can I Run To” by Xscape is a smooth love song that gets frequent plays when I’m listening to Pandora radio or my Xscape playlists in other music services. Although it’s not my favorite song from this 90s group, I will usually jam to it whenever it comes on because I currently do not own a copy of their “Off the Hook” CD. “Who Can I Run To” is about searching for love or being open and ready for the possibility of it -- I think.

Singer Kandi Burruss, who also stars in Bravo’s “Real Housewives of Atlanta,” was among the members of Xscape before this quartet disbanded. Since we’ve already covered love during the A to Z Challenge, in an earlier post for Letter L, let’s instead take a look at one movie that Xscape got me interested in -- “Sunset Park.”

“Sunset Park” is a sports drama about a basketball team led by an inexperienced female coach. Rhea Perlman (the lady from “Cheers”) plays the coach in this movie and I also read somewhere that Terrance Howard is in it as well. It wasn’t until writing todays ‘X’ post that I remembered wanting to see this movie when it came out and never did.

Fast forward to today and I still haven’t watched it, despite the fact that there are more movie rental options available now compared to 1996. Netflix, iTunes, Blockbuster, Redbox, Amazon VOD, YouTube rentals -- hell, even Hulu has movies, so you’d think I would have seen it by now! Nope.

You know what the real kicker is though? When “Sunset Park” was released, I was only interested in seeing it after learning about it from a music video for MC Lyte’s song “Keep on, Keepin’ On” featuring none other than, Xscape! I loved that music video, which features clips from the movie. Of all the millions of dollars that studios spend on movie trailers and all of the energy they put into doing press interviews and such, it was the soundtrack that introduced me to this particular film, about a sport that I don’t play and starring actors that weren’t on my radar much -- go figure!

As I prepare to add “Sunset Park” to my movie rental queue while reading up on it, I noticed that some websites have a funny way of describing this film.

Synopsis from IMDB:
A white school teacher takes over a talented, but undisciplined black high school basketball team and turns them into a winning team.

Well hmmm....when you put it like that, it sounds like we’ve all heard this story before. Maybe in a different setting or sport or line of work (James Belushi in “The Principle,” anyone?), but still. 

Description from Amazon:
Just when things can't get any worse for the Sunset Park basketball team, they get a new coach who's short, white, totally inexperienced...and female.

Urrr Uhh...so, let’s hear it for the sexists! Go team! All jokes aside, I actually like Amazon’s description better because it actually makes me want to rent the film because it peaks the curiosity of the reader -- making you to ask questions like “Well, what went wrong with the Sunset Park basketball team in the first place” and “What is going to happen surrounding their new female leadership?” Amazon’s description tells you what the story is about without letting you know whether they’ll win or lose.

Which synopsis of “Sunset Park” would make YOU want to watch this movie?

Do YOU care whether the description of a movie sums up its entire storyline?